Everything Zen
by Ethereal Prey
Summary: A man meditating has visions of the past


A man with sea blue eyes, dressed in a blue hitoboe robe walked into the room designed for meditating. He knelt down and closed his eyes. He placed his hands high on his lap and he cleared his mind and began to meditate. Emptying his mind of all thoughts he began on his spiritual journey to enlightenment. The idea of nothingness filled his mind.  
  
But then an image appeared in his mind. A figure, a woman with red hair. She was yelling at him, but he couldn't hear her. He began to see more, she was leaning over a cliff trying to help him, but he couldn't hear her. Soon she began to go farther into the distance. But she was still on the cliff, and his view of her got farther and farther away.  
  
His eyes flew open and he looked around. He was still in  the room, calm and peaceful. He couldn't seem to shake the image or the intense feeling surging through his body. He didn't understand it, but his body started to shake. He tried to stop but couldn't. Finally overcome with emotion and tension, he passed out.  
  
His friend Koji found him on the floor and tried to revive him. A few minutes later he awoke.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"I found you like this when I came" Koji replied as he helped him sit up, "I thought you were meditating"  
  
"I was, I saw something, an image"  
  
"Of what?"  
  
"A woman, with red hair, she was yelling at me, but I couldn't hear her. And then she got smaller and smaller"  
  
"Smaller?"  
  
"Yes but she didn't move"  
  
"As if you were falling?"  
  
"Yes, do you know what this means?"  
  
"It may mean many things. The answer is within yourself"  
  
Koji leaves and the man with the sea blue eyes closes them again and mediates.  
  
And again the same image appears. The woman with red hair, she reaches for him. She holds on his hand. He looks at his hand and sees a rainbow bracelet. He looks up and the woman is screaming something at him. But he hears nothing. And as she starts getting smaller and smaller again he hears her scream one final word.  
  
"SINBAD!" she screamed  
  
His eyes ripped opened and he saw Rieko, dressed in a pink kimono enter the room with a tray of tea.  
  
"Koji-san has asked me to have tea with you"  
  
"Why?"  
  
"He is worried about you"  
  
"He has no reason to be"  
  
Rieko left the room taking the tray with her. The man with the sea blue eyes tried to meditate again.  
  
Outside were Koji and Reiko.  
  
"He wants to know what he's seeing" Reiko  
  
"Is he ready?" Koji said  
  
"He deserves to know"  
  
"Then we will show him"  
  
Koji raised both his hands and Reiko did the same. A white ball of light started to form between their hands.  Inside, clearing his mind, the image appeared again, only this time it was real. He's there again. Excepts he feels everything, the wind blowing, the salt sea air, the warmth of her skin.  
  
Sinbad had fallen over a cliff, and was hanging on by a branch. Maeve comes and grabs his hand, but can't pull him up. Half her body is hanging over the edge. She holds onto him, refusing to let him go. She digs her feet and hand into the ground, hoping to hold on. She can't. The weight of Sinbad pulls her down. Sinbad is still dangling on. He looks down at the rocky waters below. Maeve screams out as she starts to feel her body being pulled apart. Her white sleeve rips from the force of being pulled.  
  
"Hurry Sinbad! Climb up!"  
  
"I can't!" he tries to get his feet on the rocks but can't.  
  
He feels Maeve slipping down over the edge more.  
  
"Please Sinbad! Hurry!" she screams out  
  
Sinbad looks up at her, the pain and tears in her beautiful face. He looks at her arm, starting to turn red, her ripped sleeve and realizes what he must do to save them, to save HER. He looks at his hand that is holding onto hers. The bracelet was there, but it didn't glow. Maeve was being dragged down even more. She grabbed onto the branch he was holding onto with her other hand and hoped she wouldn't slip any further. She was getting dangerously close to falling over herself.  
  
"I love you Maeve" Sinbad said as he looked into her eyes  
  
"Sinbad..." Maeve looked back at him  
  
"I love you Maeve, I love you" he said as she smiled and he let go of her.  
  
He kept saying it, "I love you Maeve" as he fell down into the rocky waters, as Maeve watched in absolute horror.  
  
"SINBAD!" she cried out as she watched the waters engulf his body  
  
His body plunged into the water and sank.  
  
"It's getting cold" Sinbad thought to himself but then thought of Maeve, and felt a warmth overcome him. He smiled, as it all became dark.  
  
The image was shattering. The man with the blue eyes toppled over to the side. The woman with red hair was screaming at him. He let go. He let her go and he fell. But did he die? He didn't, he was still alive. What did all this mean? Why was this happening to him? He pushed himself up and cleared his mind.  
  
Outside Koji and Reiko dropped their hands and the energy ball faded.  
  
"He has seen it" Reiko  
  
"He will have questions" Koji  
  
"Maybe it's time to show him"  
  
"Grandfather said that he wanted to give it him, himself"  
  
"It is time"  
  
Meanwhile, on a ship leaving England, was a tall thin redhead standing on the bow of the ship. The red hair was pulled back and carefully tucked into a helmet. Wearing black riding pants and a brown cloak around, they gaze out at England getting smaller and smaller.  
  
"Anthony!" the man yelled  
  
"Yes sire" the redhead replied  
  
"Have one last look at England, we may never see her again. We're off to the Crusades!"  
  
"I miss home already"  
  
"Get your sea legs lad!" the man walks away  
  
"I'll rescue you Dermott" the redhead whispered to herself.  
  
Yes, she did disguise herself as a man, in order to get passage on the ship. No captain would allow a woman onboard. She was once Lady Marion, but when she heard her brother Dermott was in trouble she went to find him and bring him home. She cut her waist length hair to her chin, bound her chest and put on some of her brother's clothes and managed to get passage on the ship.  
  
Koji opened the small box and looked inside.  
  
"What is it?" Reiko asked  
  
"It was grandfather's. He wanted to give this to him himself. He said that he wanted to the day we found him washed up on the beach."  
  
"I don't remember that"  
  
"You were too young to remember. We found him washed up on shore, he was only 3. Grandfather took him home and the next morning, the small boy had managed to jump to the largest rock in the Zen garden. And he didn't disrupt the designs in the sand." Koji said  
  
"Is that why grandfather named him Zen?"  
  
"Yes Reiko, but grandfather wanted to call him something else"  
  
"What?"  
  
"I don't remember anymore"  
  
"Shall we let him see it?"  
  
"Not yet."Koji touched the contents inside, which was a rainbow bracelet, that started to glow.  
  
"Grandfather? Tetsu? Are you here?" Koji asked to the air 


End file.
